The Present: The Forgotten Gift
By accepting the honor of fate and destiny, you place your trust in God and His decisions as He is All-Knowing, All-Aware.
The Present: The Forgotten Gift
By Rabiah Mirza
On the one hand, our lives can become tangled with constantly living in the future and yet on the other, we stand firmly stuck in the mud of the past.
Lying between the two, already been and what is to come, is the gift of the present, shouting loudly and proudly:
“I am the here and now.”
We must look to our past and accept the experiences, take a look to the future with faith and hope but more importantly we must live as if this present day was to be our last. Together, time spaces mould an individual in such a manner that he/she is equipped to deal with the trials and tribulations ahead on the path to success.
If we look at past experiences as once our present, and before what was decreed for us, we would realize that everything which begins must come to its natural end. The exception being the Creator; God has neither a beginning nor an end and therefore He is Ever-Lasting.
Enlighten another with your story, and it is rather effortless. But think of the future and we crumble as we struggle to capture the unforeseen.
This living paradox is maintained in equilibrium within our minds if we accept that both the past and the future are beyond our humanistic control. The equilibrium is threatened unduly if we provide either end of the life spectrum with time of unnecessary worry and uneasiness. When you focus into what we call ‘living a life’, one is able to conclude that sometimes our past robs us off our present.
Similarly, constantly burdening yourself with future worries deprives you of your present. Henceforth, when mankind should make use of the time provided, we are constantly chasing elements of life that cannot be outrun. What has gone can never return and what must come, will only do so on the will of God.
Turn to God in Trials
If and when we accept that a problem exists regarding our lack of ability to move forward by living the present, the responsibility falls upon us to search for solutions. The solution, as always, lies with God.
By holding onto the past, there is conflict within your inner self regarding the events that have occurred. It is possible that you question the events and their occurrence, and why you were chosen for such trial. These memories tend to be rich in emotion, one of the reasons why you are able to recall them so accurately. The solution is thus to return to God, rekindling your relationship with Him. Speak to Him as if He is there right before your eyes.
In fact, He is closer to you than your jugular vein:
{And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein} [Qaf:16].
Whatever has occurred in the past has done so because God has permitted it, good or bad. So see the blessing that He chose you specifically from the entire mankind to experience a particular event. As you do this, the experience becomes less significant as your attention begins to pave the road to glorifying your Lord.
By accepting the honor of fate and destiny, you place your trust in God and His decisions as He is All-Knowing, All-Aware.
In this manner, the slave returns to his Lord submitting himself with a content heart.
The future becomes less problematic as you deal with your past. This is as a direct result of increasing your worship. The continuance remembrance of God creates inner peace, allows you to contemplate the era in which you find yourself, what state you are currently in and what must you change to become better. These are all notions of the present, and not the past nor the future. It is the here and now.
The recognition that trials have been experienced in the past, that they will visit again but I must breathe in the air, say alhamdulillah and glorify the Lord who has provided you and I with countless gifts, with the most precious gift of all being life itself.
“Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have -life itself.”
{Verily in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest} [Ar-Ra'd:28].